Pass-through cleaning apparatus



Nov. 28, 1967 Fia.i.

R. LAWRENCE Ill PASS THROUGH CLEANING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 6, 1964 A 1 F? I 1 I l I I L, L..]

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@ZLWAMCQA H ArronNEY United S ate aten 3,354,495 PASS-THROUGH CLEANING APPARATUS Robert Lawrence IH, Hollywood, Fla., assignor to Heinicke Instruments Co., Hollywood, Fla., a corporation of Florida Filed Feb. 6, 1964, Ser. No..343,032 2 Claims. (Cl. 15-302) ABSTRACTOF THE DISCLOSURE A booth or enclosure in which articles, such as machine parts or instruments are adapted to be packaged, the booth having means for directing filtered air into it and particularly upon a work bench located within the booth and upon which wrapping or packaging operations can take place. At one end of the booth and beyond an end wall thereof, is a spray washing device and a door through said end wall establishes communication between the washing apparatus and the interior of the booth so that the articles, after having been cleansed by the washing apparatus, can be passed through the door to reach the work bench. In an opposite end wall of the booth is provided an outlet opening and the wrapped or packaged articles can be passed out through this opening or else deposited into a shipping container entered through said opening.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for cleaning and packaging articles, such as machine parts and instruments and wherein the machine parts or instruments are adequately cleaned and packaged for encasement in a shipping container for subsequent transmittal to a point of use.

The invention contemplates a booth open upon one I side, having a work bench that constitutes an assembly area for hardware or other instruments and with the booth constituting a clean work area that is provided with filters and blowers that direct a current of filtered air over the work area and with a cleaning machine attached to one end of the booth or a controlled area for initially cleaning the hardware or other objects by a liquid, and with a door between the cleaning device and the work area to permit the removal of the hardware from the cleaner to the work area and a discharge door at the opposite end of the booth or controlled area for disposal into a shipping container of a hardware package for subsequent removal.

Novel features of construction and operation of the device will be more clearly apparent during the course of the following description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings wherein has been illustrated a preferred form of the device and wherein like characters of reference are employed to denote like parts throughout the several figures.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus embodying the invention,

FIGURE 2 is a horizontal section taken substantially on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a transverse section taken substantially on line 3-3 of FIGURE 1.

Referring specifically to the drawings, there has been illustrated a pass-through cleaning device that embodies a booth 5, having a rear wall 6, a top 7 and end walls 8. The booth 5 is partitioned from its rear wall 6 as indicated at 9, and supports filters 10 of any desirable construction. A work bench 11 of convenient height, is connected to the partition 9 and below the work bench 11 there has been provided an inlet filter 12, communicating with the blower 13 of any desirable construction, that is 3,354,495 Patented Nov. 28, 1967 driven from a motor 14 and whereby air is drawn through the filter 12 upwardly and through the filters 10 to flow over the bench 11 and to impinge upon and thoroughly remove any foreign particles from the article to be cleaned.

One end 8 of the booth is provided with an inlet door 15, that is inwardly opening, as shown in dotted lines in FIGURE 2 and arranged over the door opening for the door 15 is a washing apparatus, indicated as a whole by the numeral 16. The washing apparatus 16 has communication through the door opening to permit articles to be passed from the washer onto the work bench 11. The washing device 16 is provided with a sliding door 17 to facilitate the placement of articles to be cleaned into the washer for subsequent removal through the door 15. The washing device 16 is similar to that shown in Patents 2,827,064 and 2,947,312 and comprises either movable or stationary racks over which the washing apparatus travels and with the washing apparatus projecting jets of sonic cleaning fluid both upwardly and downwardly over the articles to be cleaned. However, any suitable washing apparatus may be employed.

In the opposite end 8, there has been provided a discharge door 18 through which the articles are subsequently engaged into a shipping container illustrated in dotted lines at 19 and that will be subsequently disclosed in a separate application for patent.

In the use of the device, the hardware or other instruments to be cleaned are first placed within the washing apparatus 16 where they are cleaned 'by sonic resonance of a liquid from any environment where contamination may have previously occurred. After the instrument or parts thereof are thoroughly cleaned, they are removed from the washing apparatus 16 by passage through the door 15 where they are placed upon the work bench 11 having an environment where less possibility of contamination is likely. The operator assembles the hardware, if it is in separate parts upon the work bench and places it into a hardware container, all in the presence of the flow of filtered air from the blower 13 creating a work area that is substantially free of contamination. The hardware container has been indicated in dotted lines at 20 and will be further disclosed in another application for patent. After the article has been placed free of contamination into the hardware container, it is attached to a shipping container 19 that has been fixed over the door opening 18.

It will thus be apparent, that delicate instruments must be maintained in substantially uncontaminated condition from the cleaning apparatus to the hardware container and to the shipping container and this pass-through cleaning system is most effective for performing this action. Basically a contaminated piece of hardware is introduced into a pass-through cleaning machine that cleans by sonic resonance of a liquid, from an environment where contamination may have occurred, and the hardware is transferred from the sonic cleaning machine to the area of the work bench, having a lower contamination possibility and where the hardware is mounted within a hardware container that is subsequently attached to a shipping container, also provided with filtering means and where filtered air flows through the shipping container and the hardware container for maintaining the hardware free of contamination to its subsequent point of use.

The system is simple, cheap to manufacture and highly effective to maintain a pass-through cleaning arrangement for permitting the hardware, after leaving the washing apparatus to be checked, assembled etc. in the clean work area defined by the walls of the booth and the flow of filtered air across the bench 11 during such assembly.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise construction shown, but that changes are contemplated as readily fall within the spirit of the invention as shall be determined by the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. A pass-through cleaning system comprising a booth open at one side, said booth having two spaced end walls, a top wall, and a rear wall opposite the open side; a partition within the booth connected to the top wall and end walls having dimensions congruent with the rear wall and being spaced forwardly thereof but rearwardly of the open side; a work bench within the booth having a substantially horizontal table member in elevated position engaging each of said partition and end walls and extending forwardly of the partition a distance short of the open side, the rearward edge portion of the table member engaging the entire length of the partition and the side edge portions of the table member engaging the end walls from the juncture of the end walls with the partition along a length of the end walls in the direction of forward extension of the table member; the area of the partition above the table member 'being substantially entirely composed of an air filtering surface and constituting an air outlet from the space between the rear wall and the partition and the area of the partition below the table member having an air filtering surface constituting an air inlet to the space between the rear wall and the partition; an air blower in the space between the rear wall and the partition for moving air in through the air inlet and forcing the air out through the air outlet and over the table member; an opening in each of said end walls disposed directly above the side edge portions of the table member; a liquid spray apparatus exterior to the booth and connected to one of said openings for cleaning an article to 'be packaged; a door member over said one of said openings open; able from within the booththrough which the article is transferred from the cleaning apparatus to the booth for packaging on the table member. in the presence of filtered air blowing thereover; the other of said openings providing an egress opening through which the article is transferred after packaging under impingement of the filtered air.

2. A cleaning arrangement according to claim 1, wherein an attached shipping container removable from the exterior of the booth is disposed in the egress opening to receive the articles from the work bench.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,045,079 11/1912 Prunier et al. 134-34 X 2,121,361 6/1938 Marran 134- 37 X 3,158,457 11/1964 Whitfield -1. 55-385 X 3,251,177 5/1966 Baker 55-385 FOREIGN PATENTS 870,200 6/ 1961 Great Britain. 930,800 7/1963 Great Britain.

OTHER REFERENCES Air Conditioning, Heating, and Ventilating, December 1963 (pp. 58-63).

JOSEPH SCOVRONEK, Acting Primary Examiner.

MORRIS O. WOLK, Examiner.

I. T. ZATARGA, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A PASS-THROUGH CLEANING SYSTEM COMPRISING A BOOTH OPEN AT ONE SIDE, SAID BOOTH HAVING TWO SPACED END WALLS, A TOP WALL, AND A REAR WALL OPPOSITE THE OPEN SIDE; A PARTITION WITHIN THE BOOTH CONNECTED TO THE TOP WALL AND END WALLS HAVING DIMENSIONS CONGRUENT WITH THE REAR WALL AND BEING SPACED FORWARDLY THEREOF BUT REARWARDLY OF THE OPEN SIDE; A WORK BENCH WITHIN THE BOOTH HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL TABLE MEMBER IN ELEVATED POSITION ENGAGING EACH OF SAID PARTITION AND END WALLS AND EXTENDING FORWARDLY OF THE PARTITION A DISTANCE SHORT OF THE OPEN SIDE, THE REARWARD EDGE PORTION OF THE TABLE MEMBER ENGAGING THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE PARTITION AND THE SIDE EDGE PORTIONS OF THE TABLE MEMBER ENGAGING THE END WALLS FROM THE JUNCTURE OF THE END WALLS WITH THE PARTITION ALONG A LENGTH OF THE END WALLS IN THE DIRECTION OF FORWARD EXTENSION OF THE TABLE MEMBER; THE AREA OF THE PARTITION ABOVE THE TABLE MEMBER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY ENTIRELY COMPOSED OF AN FILTERING SURFACE AND CONSTITUTING AN AIR OUTLET FROM THE SPACE BETWEEN THE REAR WALL AND THE PARTIITON AND THE AREA OF THE PARITITION BELOW THE TABLE MEMBER HAVING AN AIR FILTERING SURFACE CONSTITUTING AN AIR INLET TO THE SPACE BETWEEN THE REAR WALL AND THE PARTITION; AN 